Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Cromwel enjoyed his new work environment. Although it had taken him a few days to get used to the ancient devices of Minas Mar and completed the equipment with some of the stuff he got from Zeontech, now he had made himself at home.

He was even happier when the Tower Master showed unrivaled competence and brought him a high-grade research subject. With his laboratory destroyed and all his original prototypes gone, he had been afraid that he would have to start from scratch or form his own failed version.

Although this disfigured subject had not been administered his perfect immortal serum, this was a derivative of the finished product and not a failed version. It was much easier to not only find the "antidote" the blacksmith had asked for but also improve his own situation.

He felt the fluid course through his veins as he emptied the syringe. Staring in the mirror, he saw his appearance rapidly change as the aging was reversed at a visible speed. He could live with the need to turn into a hideous monster every time he had to fight seriously, but he couldn't accept the appearance of geriatric in his daily life.

Aside from the curse for himself, he had also refined a whole batch of test tubes holding samples and a version of the serum he reverse-engineered from the contents of the injector and the subject's blood. With this, he had gotten everything from this subject he could get.

After all his tests, the thing in the steel box now looked even more pitiful than the day it had been delivered. Staring at his face in the mirror, which now looked like a slightly older middle-aged version of himself, he remembered the instruction the Tower Master had given him for the time when there was no more worth in the subject.

Stepping to a shelf, Cromwel took out a delicate chest, inside was a special necklace. Over and over, the tower master had cautioned him to never try and wear it himself. According to the blacksmith, it was an item with a powerful curse. Cromwel's task was simple and clear, put the necklace on the test person and report the result.

Carefully, he opened the steel box. The guy inside was an absolute mess as his body had stopped regenerating a while ago, the soul cluster could not keep up with the testing and the chronic issues his failed transformation caused. The individual souls slowly died off, making most of his wound necrotic.

For the first time, the mad scientist actually felt that he granted someone mercy and he put the pristine necklace around the neck covered in oozing wounds and necrotic skin.

What happened next was impossible to describe. Even Cromwel's stomach started churning, but his eyes stayed glued on Dragos, with manic fascination. By the time everything was over, the subject had dissolved. In wonder, the scientist fished the necklace from the pool of necrotic sludge.

…

Ever since she sent the report, Cade had been unable to stand still and secretly helped people evacuate to the abandoned ruins of Ypselon. She had come to know of this place during her first visit to Y-city as a place crawling with criminals, monsters, and unmanaged dungeons.

At least the latter part was not true anymore. After she failed to find out what happened to the corpses of the victims after they vanished in the fog, she scouted places for people to hide. With her strength, she doubted that she couldn't clean up a perimeter for people to live and hide.

During her exploration, she found most of the dungeon that had formed in the ruins, to be occupied by agents from Y-City. She had almost lost hope, that even these abandoned ruins would not be used to hide the people she saved or convinced to flee.

However, she found the ruins not as controlled as she feared at first. There was an old proverb, something about a local toad and the foreign rat, or something. She found that many of the bandit hideouts that had established themselves here were far from being subdued by Y-City.

Many of them were scum, but there were also many who had fled to the ruins earlier and established their own forces or joined existing places. The strongest one was a bandit fortress stretching across a several blocks and led by a man called Bart.

Seeing how they had taken on many refugees without treating them badly, Cade had approached that place first. With Leana's permission, she negotiated with them in the name of Minas Mar (the district) about conditions to receive more refugees and resist Y-Cities henchman in exchange for support.

She did so with several other agreeable places in the slums that could hold their own. With places to bring the people, she had already started evacuating and saving people on several occasions, but it was just a drop in the bucket.

Uncertain, Cade waited at the roadside opposite of the massive skyscraper that was the branch of Y-Citiy's system church. Finally, she had to admit that her power was not enough to safely raid some of the big centers where they held the prisoners prior to "processing" them.

Those places were not only guarded by high-grade adventurers armed to the teeth but also these weird cultivators, who held unfathomable abilities. This was why she had planned to go public with her information and try to split Y-City to get more allies on her side to attack these places.

As if anticipating her thoughts, the princess had stopped her and sent news that they were sending her reinforcements to help instead. Using the newly established Minas Palan as a waypoint, they were now able to send ori humas without fearing the System Gods' randomization.

Despite looking forward to getting a strong ally, her face fell when she recognized the man that just now stepped out of from the doors of the system church. Leana had missed mentioning that the person they would send was the hero!

Although she had to admit that the man possessed terrifying strength, he had not gained her sympathy or trust during the adventure in Keväti Kuinen. She didn't doubt his capability, ironically she doubted his character.

Giving a secret sign to reveal herself as his contact, she waited for him to cross the road before leading him to the backdoor of a closed-down perfumery.

"Why a perfumery?" Harker asked.

" Something like a bar would be a little too obvious," she answered perfunctory.

A few knocks later, they sat in a cellar room below the shop, each with a coffee in hand.

"How did you manage to organize all this?" the Hero asked curiously.

If there was something Cade truly gained from her time in Gamma during their resistance against the Zarkists, then it was her understanding to set up underground shelters on the lower floors of districts and her experience to organize a network of people. However,

"I didn't do it all by myself. After a few weeks of activity here, I was approached by an already existing network of resistance. With their help, we managed to evacuate a lot of people into hideouts across the slums and ruins. Before I explain more, I want to know why you are here to help?" Cade finally asked a question she had been occupied with for a while.

It wasn't just about understanding the Hero's intentions, but it was also a question she had been constantly asking herself in the beginning. The worst betrayal she suffered in her life, was not the monsters that destroyed her life.

Not even the time when she changed her class to Rakshasa. It was when the people she helped to protect stabbed her in the back and tried to hunt her down. So why did she feel so compelled to once again, help people and risk being betrayed?

For her herself it was not some higher morals that made her act. She had thought about it for a while and she finally became convinced that she saw herself in them. These people suffered the same fate as her. Betrayed by the people they trusted. Maybe it was not fully the same, but it was the reason why Cade felt almost driven to help. How much had she wanted for someone to reach out a hand to her when she was hunted and abandoned by her own people?

At her question, the hero stayed silent for a long while. Before and during the evaluation, he had spouted a lot of nonsense about the duty of a hero. Even afterward, he tried to hold onto these values and tried to act accordingly.

After his talk with Princess Leana however, things were different. He had been used as a puppet and supported a rotten system because they used pretty words and vain values to blind him. Facing the evidence, he was forced to reevaluate himself.

"In the past, I acted out of my own sense of justice. I jumped to conclusions before taking a good look at the situation, because it all fit well into my own narrative. I was blinded by my class as the hero and tried to act like one..."

With a sigh, he continued.

"I'm not here to act like a hero or defend justice. The princess asked me to help these people and that is what I want to do."

She looked at the hero in shock. This explained his droopy appearance so far. His bubble was popped. For the first time, Ben Harker seemed to act out of genuine goodwill. Cade could not help but have a slightly better opinion of him. Maybe this could actually work out.